2008 State of the Sox

August 5: White Sox 10, Tigers 8 (14 innings)

Adam Russell may have swooped in and picked clean the prized flesh of what appeared to be a dead ballgame, but the win should've gone to Matt Thornton.

At least Nick Swisher took him off the hook, as his two-out, three-run homer off Joel Zumaya gave the Sox a much-needed win and improved Nessie's record to 4-0.  But Thornton shouldered the brunt of the load for what was an excellent evening of relief by the entire bullpen.

Thornton came in to face Curtis Granderson with a runner on first and one out in the 11th, got ahead and put him away with a slider, setting the tone for 2 2/3 innings of fantastic relief.  He struck out Polanco to finish the 11th, went 1-2-3 in the 12th, then struck out the side in the 13th.

Edgar Renteria's jamshot single to begin the 14th would signal an end to his dominance.  Granderson popped out a bunt attempt, but Placido Polanco got his hands in on a fastball and hooked it just inside the left-field foul pole to give the Tigers an 8-6 lead.  Russell came in to finish off the inning, just in time for the Sox offense to come back to life.

The Sox rallied back from a 6-1 deficit, but were held in check from the ninth inning, due in large part to Fernando Rodney's excellent relief work, matching Thornton pitch-for-pitch for three innings himself.

Orlando Cabrera greeted Zumaya by shooting a first-pitch fastball through the right side.  After A.J. Pierzynski popped up, Carlos Quentin took an outer-half heater to right field to put runners on second and third.  It appeared Zumaya would get his second out when Jermaine Dye hit a weak chopper to short, but Renteria didn't look the ball into his mitt.  Instead, it glanced off his heel, a run crossed the plate, and there were runners on the corners and only one out.

Zumaya made it two by striking out Jim Thome on a tipped fastball, and to the plate came Swisher, who didn't start and entered as a defensive replacement for Paul Konerko in the 11th.  Swisher watched the first two pitches for balls, and after a strike, took a knee-high fastball and belted it into the center field seats, close to where Scott Podsednik's Game 2 walkoff landed to end the ballgame.

This was a game the Sox flat-out stole, considering they were down five runs halfway through regulation.  Gavin Floyd lasted only 4 1/3 innings, as he got off on the wrong foot when Polanco hit his first two-run homer as the second batter of the game.  His night came to an end after Ken Griffey Jr. played a Polanco single into a triple by not putting his glove down, and Carlos Guillen singled him home.

Ehren Wassermann entered, and the outfield defense wasn't much kinder.  Ryan Raburn hit a single to right, but Dye had a great chance to get Magglio Ordonez at the plate with a decent throw.  But it was nowhere close, and neither were the Sox.

However, Wassermann and Co. would hold the Tigers down and allow the offense to get back in it.  The Baron and Boone Logan worked a 1-2-3 inning together in the sixth, and D.J. Carrasco worked two drama-free innings in the eighth.  All the while, Sox hitters chipped away at the lead.

Cabrera started the comeback by drawing  two-out walk after Juan Uribe had grounded into the third double play of the first five innings.  Back-to-back singles by Pierzynski and Quentin would put the Sox back on the board, answering slightly for the Tigers' four-run fifth.

Jim Thome led off the sixth with a double, and Paul Konerko's 11th homer of the year off Nate Robertson made it a 6-4 ballgame.  Carlos Quentin closed it to one with a solo homer off Aquelino Lopez in the seventh, one that barely got over the fence.

Kyle Farnsworth, who the Tigers acquired just last week to help the bullpen, came in with two outs in the eighth to face Alexei Ramirez, and Ramirez took his third straight slider into the Sox bullpen to make it a brand new ballgame.  Little did we know that it would only be the second-greatest homer of the night.

Bobby Jenks worked a scoreless ninth, aided in part by two spectacular plays by Juan Uribe.  He snared a Polanco grounder to his left, hit the ground, spun as he got up and fired to first in time for Konerko to put the tag on him for the second out of the inning.  After a Guillen single, Magglio Ordonez hit a hot shot right at Uribe.  Uribe gloved it while falling backward, then threw from the seat of his pants in time to get a sliding Guillen at second.

Octavio Dotel also got the job done, blowing away the Tigers for a 1-2-3 10th.

Record: 62-49 | Box score | Play-by-play

(Yes, more later.)